


Once Bitten, Twice Shy

by SuperBlondie



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Blood Drinking, Discussion of Mental Health, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Mention of blood, Mention of drinking, Minor Character Death, Supernatural Elements, Vampires, What did u expect lol, but mostly just fluff and junmyeon being awkward, its vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:01:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26259823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperBlondie/pseuds/SuperBlondie
Summary: Being a vampire would be so much easier if he wasn't so awkward around others.
Relationships: Kim Jongin | Kai/Kim Junmyeon | Suho
Comments: 12
Kudos: 89





	Once Bitten, Twice Shy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zvirk77](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zvirk77/gifts).



> This is a commission for zvirk4 on Twitter! Thank you so much for commissioning me again, I hope you enjoy this! The only reason this is rated as mature is because there are some allusions to more adult activity and there's some minor character death that I just felt warranted a mature rating!
> 
> I literally never write sukai, so I hope I did this pairing and this prompt justice!!

Junmyeon thought that being turned into a vampire was supposed to be some sort of miracle cure. Every last ailment that one could have, the Change heals it, takes it away and leaves one a perfect being. Jongdae’s consumption, Yixing’s ulcers, Junmyeon watched with his own eyes as they were made whole once more.

And so, Junmyeon can’t help but wonder, can’t help be more than a bit irritated, at how he went into the Change awkward and timid to a fault, and emerged even  _ more _ awkward and even  _ more _ timid. Before the Change, he managed, coped, could at least hold a simple conversation through the heat rising in the back of his neck. Junmyeon cannot blush anymore, nor can he bring himself to approach anyone.

It makes his life as a vampire much, much more difficult than he would have ever imagined.

Vampires, as the general public is well aware, feed on human blood. Until the invention of human blood banks, that human blood _had_ to be fresh. And, barring one belonged to one of the royal covens with enough money and power to hide their illicit livestock, one had to lure a human close to gain access to their fresh blood. Of course, one could always just ambush their prey in a darkened alley, but even that required _approaching_ the human. 

Junmyeon struggled to feed himself for the first century of his new life.

Considering one of the reasons he even fell victim to Minseok and his pretty smile was that he was struggling to make enough money to feed himself, he was upset, and rightly so. 

Minseok and the rest of the coven would never let him starve. That sort of thing goes without saying; Junmyeon is Minseok’s childe, his first and only, and so he is Minseok’s responsibility to feed and raise into a strong member of the coven. 

For the entirety of that first century, one of the coven would always go with him on hunts to give him advice on how to speak to humans to mesmerize them, lure them in. They all said that his beauty did half the work, could do  _ all  _ of it if Junmyeon would stop looking so uncomfortable and offer a soft, flirtatious smile. He could easily crook his finger and lead his prey to the back entrance of whatever establishment he has decided to hunt in for the night without uttering a single word.

But Junmyeon’s awkward nature extends past words and into his very body, muscles tense and shoulders slumped whenever he feels shy or uncomfortable, which is almost laughably often. And so, his coven ended up hunting down a human for him and having him wait for them to bring it to him in an alley or a little-used room.

His heart no longer beats, but he can still feel that tightening of his chest, the closing of his throat when he thinks of approaching a human, of starting a conversation. He has tried to explain it to his coven many times, but he can never find the words, instead growing increasingly frustrated at his own fear. 

There were a few successes. Junmyeon still remembers that first night where he simply felt better, more sure of himself, and beckoned a man who had been staring at him from across a tavern to join him in one of the private rooms upstairs. He found out that blood he hunted down himself tasted better than anything his coven caught for him. That first successful hunt inspired some confidence in himself, but he wasn’t cured. For every two steps he took forward, he took one back in the form of a hunt that failed spectacularly, a night when he could not even make himself leave his seat, frozen by something tight and heavy in his chest. 

After roughly three hundred and thirty years of trying and failing to teach Junmyeon to hunt on his own, the coven gave up. Instead, Minseok and Jongdae used their influence within the politics of the city to find him employment with one of the new blood banks that had cropped up and told him to take what he needed from his work. 

He doesn’t blame them. They tried their very best. And, to their credit, they never once insulted him. They weren’t always the most sensitive, but they did what they could to understand why he was the way he was. 

And their solution worked out surprisingly well. The humans left him to do the inventory work, filling orders from nearby hospitals and stocking the new blood they received from the kind, selfless donors. He had free reign to take whatever blood he wanted. He was in charge of input and output, able to steal as many bags as he needed without leaving a shred of evidence behind.

Junmyeon fed well for the next century, hopping from blood bank to blood bank to avoid any suspicion about his mortality, or lack thereof. He was able to contribute more to the coven as well, bringing home bags of blood for any members recovering from an injury or simply not wanting to go out and hunt when they felt the burn of hunger in the back of their throat. 

It wasn’t perfect. He still struggled to come to deal with the feelings of inadequacy that stemmed from his inability to hunt. But life was better than it had ever been before though. 

And then, one day Kyungsoo brought a friend to the coven one day, a vampire whose old coven had disbanded due to poor leadership and uncontrollable infighting. The vampire introduced himself as Kai, and he was one of the best hunters any of the coven had ever seen.

Kai could lure in six humans within a single night, feeding half the coven without really trying. He was so handsome and he knew it, striking in the confidence that radiated from his entire being. Everyone was enamored with him, enraptured because how did one even  _ manage  _ to become that gorgeous. 

The coven was so taken with Kai and his beauty, his hunting prowess, that they sent Junmyeon on hunts to learn from him. If anyone could teach Junmyeon how to hunt, it would be Kai. 

As it happened, they were right, but not in any way that they would have expected.

Junmyeon still remembers the night he found Kai sitting on the roof after a night of successful hunting. Junmyeon hadn’t done much but sip at his drink and follow Kai out to the alley to feed off the poor human that had been caught in Kai’s orbit. It was how most hunts went when he was involved, Kai doing all the work and Junmyeon a pretty piece of furniture standing off in the corner.

Kai had been sitting up on the roof of an empty warehouse in the industrial district of the city. Junmyeon thought he was relaxing, celebrating a good night. And so, Junmyeon scaled the building to join him in the moonlight for nothing else than to enjoy the quiet of Kai’s company.

Imagine his surprise when he found Kai crying silently instead. 

The conversation was long, full of Kai attempting to deflect and Junmyeon soldiering on despite the other vampire’s obvious discomfort. Junmyeon may struggle to speak, but he is an  _ excellent  _ listener. And painfully persistent when it comes to the well-being of his coven even if the idea of talking to Kai made him nervous. 

Finally, Kai broke and admitted that he had slipped up when speaking to the human he caught for Junmyeon. He had wanted to say something subtly flirtatious and had been more overt than he wanted. He wasn’t  _ perfect.  _ All his confidence and sensuality were a front for a fear of failure that threatened to swallow him whole. He was so good at hunting because he  _ had  _ to be, because anything less than perfection was worthless.

And Junmyeon realized that that was why he struggled to hunt as well. He could not make himself approach a human because he couldn’t be sure that he would do it perfectly. Where Kai fought to be perfect, Junmyeon let that fear of failure freeze him in place.

Junmyeon remembers how they laughed when they realized just how similar they were. Kai continued to cry, but he didn’t seem quite so upset with himself. He let Junmyeon pull him into a loose hug, his head on Junmyeon’s shoulder as they sat in the silver moonlight, and told Junmyeon to call him Jongin.

-

Junmyeon offers a ghost of a smile to the woman watching him from the other end of the bar. She isn’t the target for tonight, but he memorizes her face for when they go out next month. 

That is one of the best things about being half a millennium old, only needing to feed every month or so. Newly Changed vampires feed a minimum of once a week, if not every other day. Those days, while fun in the sense of exploring his new powers, were horrible; he was just so  _ hungry  _ all the time.

Now, he’ll go out one night a month, sate his thirst, and then spend the rest of the month happily holed up in his cozy three bedroom apartment. Minseok still has rooms set up for him at the main coven house, but he and Jongin prefer their own space. They like the quiet, the freedom to sit in front of the fake fireplace they bought twelve winters ago and just enjoy each other’s company.

Junmyeon loves his coven, would throw himself on a stake for each and every member. But he simply cannot handle Baekhyun and Jongdae’s constant screeching; he has experienced one tearful karaoke night too many.

Thankfully, Jongin feels much the same; he is long past the time when he couldn’t drop the Kai act around them, but Junmyeon has noticed that he only truly relaxes in their apartment.

Jongin is always beautiful. Leather, lace, Junmyeon is captivated by him no matter how he looks or what he wears. But there is something just so wonderful about how happy Jongin looks in a warm sweater, comfortable shorts, and the glasses he hasn’t needed in centuries but still loves to wear. 

That exact outfit is what Jongin will put on when they return home later tonight, probably the purple sweater Junmyeon bought for him during their last trip to Sweden and the black shorts he has owned longer than most of the patrons of this bar have been alive. For now, though, Jongin is wearing a crop top and a pair of leather pants that were hell to put on and are somehow even harder to take off. 

He looks blindingly, mouth-wateringly sexy. He looks dangerous, dressed in all black and a splash of bright red like a warning sign. It’s Jongin’s favorite outfit for hunting. After a successful night he’ll always laugh about how humans know to leave black and red alone when it comes to spiders, why not with other people?

Junmyeon sighs at his lover’s poor sense of humor as he watches Jongin scan the bar, brow furrowed as he chooses their prey for the night.

A deep breath, Jongin has chosen. “That one,” he whispers, so quiet even Junmyeon has to strain to hear him. 

Junmyeon already knows who he’s referring to. There’s a burly man sitting by himself at one of the little tables pushed into the far corners of the bar, beyond the packed dance floor. Junmyeon felt the human’s gaze when he and Jongin walked through the door a few hours earlier, is acutely aware of how the man hasn’t looked away from him for more than a few minutes at a time all night.

Because that is always who Jongin chooses, not the droves of humans that thirst after him, the ones that would go with him in an instant if he so much as looked their way. Jongin always chooses the humans who look at  _ Junmyeon.  _

It’s not that Jongin is ever truly jealous. He just doesn’t like anyone looking at Junmyeon the way that  _ he  _ looks at Junmyeon.

Junmyeon, for his part, does his best to make anyone who stares at him the way Jongin does think they have a chance. He glances over his shoulder, bites his lip, tucks his hair behind his ear, anything to string the humans along. It makes the actual hunt so much easier if he fans that fire.

“Are we a couple this time? Or just best friends?” Junmyeon chews on the plastic sword of his margarita. 

They have a few different scripts to follow. Partly for variety, to keep them from getting bored, and partly to throw the police off their trail so that there isn’t one concrete profile for the killers that strike one Saturday a month. 

Jongin hums. He looks over at Junmyeon, comparing their outfits. “Couple,” he says, “I think we look a little too well-coordinated to just be best friends. It’s always easier to get a human to follow me if they think they’re going to get both of us as well. Wait for me in the alley and I’ll have our dinner out in five minutes.” Jongin leans in to press a sweet kiss to Junmyeon’s lips, smiling, looking every bit like the man Junmyeon fell in love with.

Then, Jongin shakes his head to clear it. He runs his fingers through his hair to push it back from his forehead and give himself that artfully rumpled look. His expressions cools, none of the happy, sleepy warmth that Junmyeon gets to see. Jongin smirks, brown eyes turning lethal, and he becomes Kai.

Junmyeon takes that as his cue to drop a twenty on the bar to cover both of their tabs and hop out of his seat. He adjusts his clothing and makes for the bar’s back entrance, though not without first giving their target his sweetest, most bashful smile. 

Small talk is Jongin’s forte, being bait is Junmyeon’s. 

Junmyeon, while he has gotten infinitely less awkward over the years thanks to Jongin’s help in building his confidence and forcing him to go to therapy, still struggles to hunt. Long gone are the days where one could just ambush a human in a back alley—Junmyeon is certain he could do that with ease after the last year of working through what his therapist calls anxiety so intense it’s a miracle he can do even the most basic of daily functions. Now, there are security cameras that mean hunts have to be planned, prey lured into specific locations. Junmyeon still isn’t very good at that.

Not that that is particularly important, as he and Jongin have become a  _ killer  _ team. 

Jongin groans so loudly each time Junmyeon makes that joke. But Junmyeon knows he loves it. He loves most things regarding Junmyeon, just as Junmyeon loves everything that has to do with Jongin in return.

And so, this is how they hunt. 

Junmyeon smiles prettily at any human that lets themselves be pulled into his orbit. He makes them want him enough to do something stupid like follow a stranger out into an alley or an abandoned warehouse not too far from the bar. He has gotten good at predicting just which human Jongin will end up choosing; Jongin always gets to choose as he is the one that actually has to approach them and coax them out. Junmyeon makes sure he pays that human more attention than the rest, but never enough to give them the courage to approach Junmyeon on their own.

It happened once, when they were still perfecting their routine, and Junmyeon had done what he is wont to do—froze, stuttered, stammered, panicked. They didn’t feed that night. Junmyeon made too big of a scene and no human bothered to look his or Jongin’s way. 

Now, Junmyeon is careful to look as shy as possible, a timid rabbit that the humans won’t dare to approach lest they startle him and he runs away. Jongin approaches them instead. He chooses which human he wants for the night, Junmyeon leaves the bar with one last lingering look in the human’s direction, and Jongin begins his performance of a wingman, a well-meaning best friend, a boyfriend looking for a third for the night. 

Once, just for fun, Baekhyun acted as bait so that Junmyeon could sit and watch his lover at work. It was a beautiful thing. Jongin knows just how to act, how to balance each and every emotion he displays so that the human cannot help but fall for his lies and follow him, tripping over themselves to do as he says.

Junmyeon could never come close; that’s fine though, he has long moved past any feelings of inadequacy. Jongin chased those out of him by the end of their second decade together. He is happy with his part in their charade.

Junmyeon waits outside in the dark of the alley as Jongin fetches them dinner. It takes a few minutes, and then he can hear voices through the thick, metal backdoor of the bar.

“So what is he? Power bottom? Pillow prince? I’m cool with either. Or is he a top? Because that’s fine too, I guess. But I won't bottom.”

“He is whatever he chooses to be at the moment. Our relationship isn’t built on rigid dynamics like top or bottom. After you,” Jongin opens the door with a sweep of his arm. He meets Junmyeon’s eyes over the shoulder of the human that struts out and his expression screams irritation.

Junmyeon bites his tongue to keep from laughing. “Hello,” he says softly.

“H-hey,” the human shoves his hands in his pocket and straightens his back to try and appear more intimidating, more masculine. It just makes the line of his neck more pronounced, more easily accessible.

Jongin grins, that sweet, joyful smile that spreads across his mouth when any sort of food is put in front of him, blood or otherwise. “Dinner, my love, is served.”

The human doesn’t get a chance to scream, to even process the words, before Jongin is wrapping his arms around the human from behind in an ironclad grip, fangs descending and sinking into his throat. Junmyeon is quick to join, going up on his toes to reach the other side of the human’s neck.

They make quick work of their dinner. They usually do; humans don’t have nearly as much blood as horror movies like to make it seem. But it’s enough to satisfy them, especially when they have a constant supply of blood bags to snack on should they suddenly get a craving between hunts. Jongin lets Junmyeon have a little extra because he is sweet in that way, always so generous.

In return, Junmyeon is the one who hides the body in the middle of a nearby dumpster. He positions it perfectly between layers of garbage so that it isn’t likely to be seen when the trash collectors come in the morning. 

“That was fun,” Jongin comes up behind Junmyeon and grabs him by the waist. “Did you have fun?” A kiss is pressed to Junmyeon’s cheek. “I know you wanted to stay home tonight, so I really appreciate you coming out with me.”

Junmyeon leans back into his lover’s hold, laughing. Jongin always gets so nervous about forcing Junmyeon to do things, as if enjoying Jongin’s isn’t incentive enough to get him to do most anything. “Yes, yes, I had fun. Do not feel like you forced me out tonight, I was just feeling lazy and wanted to sit and rewatch something on Netflix. I probably still will once we get back home. Unless you had other plans? Since I’m already out, I’m happy to join you on whatever adventure you have concocting in that head of yours.”

“Well, now that you mention it,” Jongin giggles in his ear, “Baekhyun and Jongdae are making O negative Jager bombs and perhaps I told them we were coming.”

A headache begins to build in Junmyeon’s temples preemptively. No good can come from Jager bombs, especially if Baekhyun and Jongdae are involved. But Jongin loves to party with the coven, and Junmyeon loves to make Jongin happy. So he resigns himself to getting wildly drunk and giving anyone who asks a very bad lap dance.

Junmyeon isn’t not very good at being drunk, all his fear disappearing and leaving him overly confident in his ability to do just about everything.

“Fine, but I am  _ not  _ playing Russian roulette with the water gun full of holy water. I had marks for  _ days  _ afterwards last time.”

Jongin nods. “Of course! Whatever you say! Now, let’s go! Jongdae will drink everything if we don’t hurry!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! If you liked it, please leave a kudos and a comment! You can find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/killmeDO) and [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/killmeDO) Sometimes I talk about what I'm working on next and post snippets! I'd love to hear from you <3


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